Android Rant 2: Ice Cream something

At long last the latest... almost most recent version of Android has been released for my phone.  I've mentioned this in passing before but the absolutely insane update path is one of the most frustrating aspects of owning and living with an Android device.  Because so many parties are involved in the dreary task of keeping an out-of-date piece of hardware current (subsidized hardware, at that) there is little to no incentive for it to get done in a timely fashion.  I can't exactly blame HTC or Sprint for their dragging of feet.  Time spent developing a new and custom build for a no-longer-manufactured phone is, at least in the short term, money wasted.  How this short term issue is handled can help retain customers, or even push long-termers away.

Android's update issues stem from how it must be custom built for each phone.  If Apple had these issues their bottom line would not be anywhere near what it is today.  Their control of hardware lets them streamline updates so that rollouts are faster and less fragmented (and, I say, *fractured*) than Android's absolutely haphazard and lag-filled update process.  Put it this way: if Microsoft had to custom build Windows for every single different computer on earth... Let's just say Ballmer would have popped a vein by now. 

So - on to some complaints about ICS.  These are just the things I've noticed within my first week of using the latest... I mean kind of recent version of Android.  I hate it.  I hate it worse than Gingerbread.  Let's start with the most basic functions: turning various things on and off.

With Gingerbread, turning on or off various functions was one swipe and two taps away.  GPS? swipe, tap, tap.  WiFi radio? swipe, tap, tap.  Let me give you a textual rundown of how to activate or deactivate the GPS now: swipe, tap, tap, swipe, tap.  WiFi?: swipe, tap, tap, tap.  WiFi also seems to disconnect whenever possible and reconnecting requires the same swipe, tap, tap, tap... wait... tap, wait, tap, tap.

GPS, if it doesn't connect right away, will NEVER find a location lock until I shut it off and turn it back on.  Swipe, tap, tap, tap, swipe, tap, wait, tap, swipe.  

Okay so maybe getting from an address search to navigation mode has improved?  Let's find out.  I'll start with the process AFTER I've done a home-screen based address search.  Nav: tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.  Most of the places you have to click on are at wildly different parts of the screen.  I don't know about you but I think that it should take considerably less than six steps after an address search to get to the part where the thing helps you navigate to that address.  Oh and that is if the GPS is still on.  If it isn't there are several more steps to that process. 

Then there is the utter slowness of the interface.  I may post video because its really insane that a modern phone should lag like its running on a tape drive.  I just took a photo and I want to send it to Facebook.  In Gingerbread there was essentially no discernible delay.  Now there is, at least, several seconds between pressing "share" and any reaction at all from the phone.  This isn't the only point at which some kind of pause is present but it is the most obvious thus far.  The phone responds to everything with lag now. 

None of this is a deal-breaker by itself.  In aggregate and with all of the other frustrating limitations (Bluetooth and the batshit auto-play - I'm looking at you, and don't get me started on how Bluetooth has been further obfuscated) it is an absolute deal breaker.  I may revisit Android in the future.  For now and the near future - I'm ditching this mess of a an OS for something a little more reasonable.